FAU Enters into $3 Million
Collaborative Federal Initiatives in Naval Engineering
Research and Education

BOCA RATON, FL (January 24, 2011) — Florida
Atlantic University’s department of ocean and mechanical
engineering and SeaTech in the College of Engineering and Computer
Science have kicked off three long-term collaborative
initiatives which involve more than $3 million in federal funding
for research and education in naval engineering.

“FAU’s
ocean engineering academic programs have emerged to become
top-rated programs nationally and internationally,” said FAU
President Mary Jane Saunders. “We are extremely pleased to
have been selected to receive this funding to conduct research and
education in this field, and to continue our ongoing partnerships
with government, industry and academia.”

The
three research and education projects include:

Atlantic Center for the Innovative Design & Control of
Small Ships (ACCESS): This is a five-year Office of Naval
Research-sponsored international research collaboration between
Stevens Institute (lead), the Naval Academy, Webb Institute, Naval
Postgraduate School, FAU and University College in London and is
aimed at developing innovative unmanned autonomous small surface
ships. FAU will receive more than $900,000 over the
five-year-period for this project which will lead to the
development of systems for autonomous cooperation between small
surface ships and autonomously launched autonomous underwater
vehicles.

Naval Engineering Education Center (NEEC): This is
a five-year, multi-university, $50 million U.S. Navy initiative
which involves collaboration being led by the University of
Michigan to support the development and maintenance of a skilled
engineering workforce in the Navy laboratories. Other collaborating
universities include FAU, MIT, Virginia Tech, Webb Institute, Penn
State, Stevens Institute, Georgia Tech, Florida State University,
Old Dominion, UT-San Antonio, University of Washington, University
of New Orleans, University of Iowa and Tennessee State University
(TSU). FAU will receive $1.45 million for this project which will
provide new research opportunities for FAU faculty, and career,
scholarship and internship opportunities for U.S. students at FAU.
This collaboration has already led to visits to FAU by the
engineering dean and faculty of TSU and the development of a
specific collaborative proposal between FAU and TSU, led by Hassan
Mahfuz, Ph.D., professor, department of ocean and mechanical
engineering at FAU, in the area of composite materials.

Characterization and Exploitation of Magnetic and Electric
Fields in the Coastal Ocean Environment: This project is a
collaborative research initiative between FAU’s SeaTech, the
Navy and Nova Southeastern University. FAU received $705,000 for
this project which is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.
This project is potentially a multi-year effort that will lead to
the development of a one-of-a-kind, in-water electromagnetic test
facility on the Navy range just offshore of SeaTech in Dania Beach,
Fla., and will support identifying the sources and nature of
variability in background electromagnetic noise in coastal waters
that affect detection and recognition of weak electrom
agnetic
signals from man-made sources.

“These
federally funded collaborations provide important opportunities for
cross-fertilization of new ideas in engineering education and
research amongst the participating institutions and will have a
positive impact on the quality of our programs,” said Manhar
Dhanak, Ph.D., principal investigator for the three projects, and
professor and director of SeaTech. “These projects will build
upon our considerable research activities in naval engineering, and
will engage students in innovation through hands-on internships and
provide them with new scholarship and career
opportunities.”

Ocean
engineering research and education programs at FAU in the areas of
underwater acoustics, marine materials, hydrodynamics and physical
oceanography and autonomous underwater vehicles have received
significant funding over the years from the Office of Naval
Research. Funding of these programs has led to a number of research
publications and development of innovative ocean technologies.
FAU’s SeaTech is a state-funded institute for ocean and
systems engineering, and is dedicated to the promotion of ocean
engineering research, and development and transition of ocean
technologies through its ocean-side laboratories.

“We
are extremely proud of the many contributions our faculty and
students have made in the field of ocean engineering, research and
education,” said Mohammad Ilyas, Ph.D., interim chair and
professor, FAU’s department of ocean and mechanical
engineering. “The significant funding we will receive to
launch these three new projects is a testament to their
accomplishments.”

- FAU -

About Florida Atlantic
University:

Florida Atlantic University
opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in
Florida. Today, the University serves more than 28,000
undergraduate and graduate students on seven campuses and
sites. Building on its rich tradition as a teaching university,
with a world-class faculty, FAU hosts 10 colleges: the Dorothy
F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters, the College of
Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the
College of Education, the College of Engineering
& Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L.
Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of
Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. For more information,
visit
www.fau.edu.